Even though our constitution has provided us with the right to freedom of expression, there are certain reasonable restrictions to it. Rahul Vaid was arrested on May 16, on the charges of posting obscene content on Orkut against Sonia Gandhi.

INDIA IS a democratic country. You can express your feelings and opinions about anyone but if you aren’t careful about the way you express it, you could land in serious trouble. Nowadays, people have started using networking sites like Orkut as a platform for expressing their views and opinions in the way they want, forgetting about Section 292 of Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 67 of the Information Technology Act, 2000 (IT Act).

In
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Rahul Krishnakumar Vaid, a 22-year old IT professional from Gurgaon, was arrested by the Pune police for posting derogatory content about the Congress chief Sonia Gandhi on one ’I hate Sonia Gandhi’ community. The techie was nabbed from his residence from Chakarpur, on May 16.
He was charged under the Section 292 of the IPC and Section 67 of the IT Act, as he created a profile and, in a vulgar language, posted comments on Gandhi. A Congress activist from Pune, Amol Bhokare had lodged a complaint in December 2007, at the Deccan Gymkhana police station against the unknown person. According to the police, the person who formed this community is not guilty as per the law, as hating anyone is a personal opinion but posting derogatory content in a vulgar language is indeed a crime.
The cyber crime cell of Pune then got in touch with the Google company, inquiring about the person who formed this forum and circulated obscene content. It was informed that the message about Sonia Gandhi was circulated from an email address rahulvaidindia@gmail.com and through this the owner Rahul Vaid was tracked down.
A team was dispatched by the deputy commissioner of police to arrest the accused who had posted the messages against Sonia Gandhi. The accused, a commerce graduate, was produced before the Shivajinagar court on May 17, after being brought to Pune on a flight. Vaid accepted that he had posted the messages. He has been remanded to police custody till May 21 and if found guilty, he may be fined up to one lakh rupees or imprisoned for a term of up to five years.
During interrogations, Rahul told the police that he hated Sonia Gandhi and so posted the message but had no idea that it would land him in jail.
So all those who hate Congress or Sonia Gandhi or anyone else for that matter, beware before posting any obscene or vulgar content on the Internet as it may land you in prison.